Middle Distance
by MartyMuses
Summary: A young troll shaman in search of training. An unscrupulous troll hunter in search of gold. Fate brings them together, duty tears them apart, and the spirits guide them both on journeys that will take them to the ends of Azeroth and beyond, their paths always crossing somewhere in the middle distance. **Contains M/M Romance**
1. Part 1: Sit on De Rock

((Author's Note: I began writing this story back in 2008. It is a completed story, but since I have never published it here before I am editing and uploading the chapters one by one. The story begins in what would be considered "Vanilla" World of Warcraft. ))

"Sit on de rock!"

"But, Voj…"

"Sit!" Vo'jya snarled, his lips pulling back over teeth and tusks as he placed his hands on Tak'tara's shoulders and shoved him down onto the rock. The little shaman flinched, but obediently sat still, looking down into his lap, three-fingered hands twisting at the blue leather of his kilt. Vo'jya ran an aggravated hand through his dark mane of hair, able to feel the singed places that had resulted from being barraged with fireballs when Taki lost control over his fire totem. "Now… you wan' ta be explainin' ta me wha' happened?"

"I… I dun be ponderin', Voj. Dun be asp sharp like," the miserable-looking troll said meekly.

Vo'jya ground the heel of his hand into his forehead. There the boy went again blathering on in his strange way of speaking; that Shatterspear low-common dialect that made no sense even as it made sense and drove the hunter's brains into aggravated mush.

"You don' be knowin', mon, why yer spirit-forsaken totem would take ta lightin' me up?"

"I be ponderin' mah thoughts went spit-slick an' been hoppin' da wind on me, Vo'jya," Tak'tara went on, peeking up at the older troll. "I'm grinnin' low."

Vo'jya just looked back at the young shaman, speechless for a moment, and then threw up his arms. "What does dat even mean, mon?!"

Taki tried again, looking back down, hunching his shoulders even more than usual. "I'm ponderin' mah thoughts got away from me, mon."

Vo'jya hunkered down in the road so that his face was on level with Taki's. "An' what be causin' dat, bwa?" Inwardly Vo'jya flinched. 'Bwa', a word that was apparently the Shatterspear equivalent of 'boy' - already the strange little shaman's way of talking was rubbing off on him.

Taki looked cautiously into Vo'jya's eyes and felt his stomach flop around. He knew he was nothing but a nuisance to the hunter, but since Zarjaya had gone back to the village and left him all alone in the world he was currently the only one Tak'tara had. So how could he tell him that the reason his concentration had slipped and he'd lost control of the fire spirit within the totem was because he had caught a glimpse of the hunter fighting out of the corner of his eye and become enthralled. No he didn't think that would go over very well at all. "Notin' I ponder…" he said softly, dropping his eyes again.

Vo'jya sighed. "Notin'? Yer thought's be 'hoppin' da wind' ova' notin'?"

Taki swallowed and hazarded a small smile. "I be guessin' truth."

"You are da world's worst shaman, bwa," Vo'jya said slowly, coldly.

Taki flinched at the comment as if from a physical blow, hunching in on himself. Didn't he already know it? He'd never been any good at controlling the spirits. He didn't have the confidence; he didn't have the will… So how was he ever going to become a Far Seer? It wasn't fair that his father and sister would leave this to him! What did he care for the Earthen Ring? He had only wanted to get out of the village… he had never wanted this mantel to pass to him! "I be knowin' dat!" he cried, pounding his fists into his thighs. "But I be grinding' to it!" He looked up fiercely at Vo'jya, his lip curling back over one tusk just slightly.

"Don you be yellin' at –me-, mon. I dun need ta' be here! In fact I be gone, bwa. Stay away from da voodoo," the hunter snarled, turning to amble away.

Taki grabbed after him, clutching at his pants. Vo'jya halted in his tracks. "Ya' can't, Voj! I dun know da way!"

The hunter spun around and jerked free of Taki's grasp, once more crouching in front of him. Taki gasped as one of his tusks was grabbed and his head was wrenched sideways to look down the long road that wound through the trees of Ashenvale forest. Vo'jya pointed down the road with one long arm that Taki was forced to look down. "You see dat road, bwa? You gwan take dat road an you find da Outpost. But you gwan wait on dis here rock til you watch mah back get out of sight an' den some." He jerked Taki's head around to face him once more, still holding onto his tusk. "Ya followin' me, bwa?"

"I be followin', Voj, close like," Taki mumbled, his lips trembling in misery. Vo'jya was abandoning him after all.

"Good. Den let dat be da last time you be followin' me anywhere." He gave Taki an aggravated little shove back as he released his tusk and stood up. Turning his back on the young shaman he took off down the road, giving a sharp whistle to call his vulture who had once again disappeared into the foliage. The sickly thing flapped out of the trees awkwardly and landed none too gracefully on Vo'jya's broad shoulder, giving Taki a hateful look.

Taki watched his back until it was out of sight, and then hung his head, trying to keep from crying. And not knowing what else to do just stayed on the rock beside the road.

The whole way back to Splintertree Outpost Vo'jya mumbled and grumbled to himself. He hadn't been paid nearly enough to put up with the constant trouble he'd been in since taking the young troll under his wing.

"'Jus' get him to da Earthen Ring, mon,' she said. Sure, sounds easy enough. How much trouble can one whelp be innyway?," he mumbled, recalling his initial conversation with Zarjaya almost a month ago. Playing bodyguard was not his general shtick, but he'd been hard up for cash to pay off some gambling debts, and if he ever wanted to leave Zorem'gar (an effective, but intensely dull hiding place from debtors) he figured this would be as easy a way to get it as any.

Little had he known that the young Shatterspear shaman with hair the color of Durotar rock and skin as blue as the late evening sky that was deposited into his hands would cause him more trouble in less than two days than he'd had in almost half a year. If he wasn't somehow attracting every animal in the forest to attack him he was attracting the attentions of patrolling Night Elves with his senseless and constant chatter which half the time sounded like he was arguing with himself.

Every tree, every rock, every sunspot was an object of intense interest and awe to Tak'tara. And then half the time if battle ensued even the shaman's assistance turned into more trouble, because he could never keep his Loa-cursed totems under control. If Vo'jya wasn't being pelted by wayward fireballs by one totem he was getting his feet tangled in the slowing aura of another. He hated to imagine what would happen if Tak'tara actually summoned a full-bodied elemental to his aid. A lot of running and screaming came to mind. Not, he thought, that Taki was anywhere near powerful enough to pull off such a feat, but the spirits might just be perverse enough to let it happen if only to make Vo'jya's life harder.

Finally the rounded stone buildings and the red leather flags of Splintertree Outpost came into view. They were a comfort to the hunter. He didn't like the forest. It felt eerie and full of eyes. It smelled wet and alive in ways that unsettled him. Though he supposed the forest of Ferelas, close to Shadowprey village and thus much explored by Vo'jya in his younger days growing and training there, was not so very different. It, too, was closed in and damp in comparison to the arid openness of the Sartheris Strand and the rest of Desolace where he had spent most of his life since the Darkspear came to settle Kalimdor.

But Ferelas did not feel like Ashenvale felt. It had never felt intrinsically hostile, but he supposed that had to do with the Night Elves. No self-respecting troll wanted anything to do with the Kaldorei save to have them at the far end of a sharp, pointed object. It was the greedy Kaldorei who had started the decline of the great Zandali empire and caused the sundering that so weakened and separated their people. True, it may have been millennia ago, but trolls never forget.

He hoped no Kaldorei patrols stumbled upon the clumsy shaman as he made his way to the Outpost alone…

Passing through the rough hewn gates and ambling up the slight rise to the inn Vo'jya barely bothered to look around, not even acknowledging the other inhabitants with so much a nod. "Da spirits… dey be hatin' me, mon," he grumbled to his vulture as he passed through the door of the inn.

"Dat's because you a lazy, ungrateful whelp wit a gamblin' problem and no respect fo' yo elders." The sound of the familiar, slightly slurred voice made Vo'jya flinch and close his eyes.

"You here already den, Masta Jemba?" he drawled with a sigh. "Drinkin' already too by da sound of yo voice, mon."

"Don't take dat long to get from where I tracked yo useless hide to last an here. I en't been drinkin', I been smokin', mon," the voice responded followed by a soft belch. "When dat bird gonna die, mon?"

"When he good and ready!" Vo'jya snapped, turning to face the elder troll. Jemba was lying across a hammock, one wiry arm and leg dangling over the side. He had the ridiculous fishing hat Vo'jya hated so much pulled down nearly to his eyes, ears, nose and tusks all that was visible beneath the floppy brim. There was a time when Jemba had been one of the greatest hunters of the Darkspear, having earned the honor of being called a Wilderness Stalker. But that was years ago when Jemba was a young male, before he started taking students.

And by the time he had taken on Vo'jya, his last and purportedly most disappointing student, he was already considered an elder. His days of stalking the wilds long over Jemba spent most of his time tending to his 'garden' which he then harvested, dried, and smoked and lazily fishing in the village. When he wasn't out showing up in random places just to make Vo'jya's life harder.

His former master had shown up in Zorem'gar Outpost one day a week or so ago, claiming he'd heard about Vo'jya's debt problem. Though he never made it clear if he'd come to help his old pupil or to just watch him squirm. He'd been there when Zarjaya showed up with Tak'tara, and instantly taken a liking to the Shatterspear shaman. Another sign that should have warned Vo'jya that this was a doomed undertaking.

The image of the bright-haired shaman sitting dejectedly by the side of the road flashed through Vo'jya's mind and he growled, shoving it away again.

Jemba's swung his dangling leg, his dulling skin now nearing gray from age, and pushed up the brim of his hat with one gnarled finger. "Dat t'ing ent nevar been well. It been dyin' by inches since ya tamed it, mon. Whateva happened to dat Vale Screecha ya tamed when you finally grew a pair?"

Vo'jya curled his lip and pointed to his left ear which had a coin-sized, jagged hole in it about halfway up in the inner cartilage. "Did ya fo'get dat bitch put dis hole in mah ear? She stabled, mon, and dat where she gwonna stay! Besides las' time I went anywhere near Sen'jin village wit' her I got da evil eye and I almos' got jumped like I was some Hakkari zufli! Trainin' dat sky snake was da worst piece of advice you evar gave me, mon."

Jemba blinked lazily. "I been yo masta since you was tall enough to hold a bow, Voj, I t'ink I probably gave you worse advice den dat somewhere along da way."

"You mean you –was- my masta. I ent yo apprentice no moar, mon," Vo'jya said with a dismissive hand wave.

Jemba blinked, his hazy eyes almost as gray as his skin. "Where da bwa?"

Vo'jya shrugged. "On a rock."

"What'chu mean 'on a rock?'"

"I lef' him on a rock on de side of de road. No worries he be along sure enough, and I gwanna be gone by den."

Jemba sat up, fixing his student with incredulous eyes. "You lef' dat bwa on a rock in da middle of da forest, mon?!"

"It on de side of da road!" Vo'jya snapped defensively. "And don' be callin' him 'bwa', dat ent a word, mon!"

"You in charge of dat bwa! Go get 'im back!" Jemba ordered, getting to his feet.

"I will not, mon. Dat bwa not'in' but trouble. Got a mouth that run like watah, and I swear he got about as much commune wit' da spirits as dung," Vo'jya snapped, drawing himself up to full height and fixing his former master with a challenging stare.

Jemba was not impressed. He walked up to Vo'jya and poked him in the chest. "You a heartless bastard, Vo'jya. You always been moar selfish den anyone I eva' train. If it weren't fo' yo fadda I woulda neva' taken you as my student. He'd be ashamed of you, mon."

"Don' you be lecturin' me, old man," Vo'jya snarled. "I en't yo pupil no moar."

"You be my pupil to da day you die, mon, notin' eitha or us can do about dat now. And you may t'ink you got it all figured out, but one word from me and an yo name be _echuta_ in every troll village from here to Zul'drak. Now get yo half-dead bird off da floor and go get dat damn bwa off dat rock!"

Vo'jya snarled and tore himself away, whistling to the vulture who lamely flapped into the air and back to his shoulder before he stalked back out of the inn. There was no point in arguing with Master Jemba. He was old and he had traveled far and wide and earned a lot of respect from a lot of people in his heyday. To be disowned by him as a pupil might not ruin Vo'jya completely as Jemba liked to threaten it would, but it would definitely make his life a lot harder than it already was. And as far as Vo'jya was concerned it was already plenty hard.

It was getting into late evening, the already dim forest filling up with an eerie murky gloaming when Vo'jya made it back to the spot where he'd left Tak'tara. The shaman's bright hair, skin, and garb practically shown like a beacon in the dimness of the woods. He was sitting right where he'd left him, head down staring at his lap, hands folded resignedly. As he drew closer he heard loud snuffling and Vo'jya inwardly cringed, because he knew it meant the young shaman was crying.

"I thought you was supposed to make fo' da Outpost, bwa," he said as he approached.

Taki looked up, red-orange eyes leaking tears down his face. His eyes widened and he took a deep, quivering breath as Vo'jya approached. "V-Vo'jya…" he said softly, almost plaintively.

The sight of the young troll on the rock made the hunter sigh and hook one hand around a tusk, tugging it absently. Those big, sad eyes, those quivering lips, the utterly dejected and miserable aspect of his entire being wreaked absolute havoc on Vo'jya's conscience. He knew this would happen, because he was a sucker. It was why he wanted to wash his hands of the shaman quickly and cleanly, because he knew as soon as those hands reached out for him and wrapped themselves around his legs that it was hopeless to be mad at the bwa any longer.

Taki buried his face precariously close to Vo'jya crotch and began sobbing. The hunter flinched as sharp tusks came uncomfortably close to sensitive and delicate parts of his body, yet he couldn't bring himself to shove the little shaman away.

"I'm sorry, Vo'jya!" Taki sobbed. "Please, please dun be leavin' me again, mon. I en't got no one else out here. Mah sistah left me… mah village done set me out… you all I got, Voj… you all I got…"

Vo'jya sighed and hesitantly, haltingly placed a hand on the top of Taki's head. "You be da only person I eva met dat gets more intelligible when dey cryin'."

"You all I got! Dun leave me again, Vo'jya," Taki continued to cry.

The hunter took a deep breath and sighed, closing his dark blue eyes. "Ya, mon, I en't gwanna leave you. Now you gwan stop cryin'. It en't manly, and yo tusks is makin' me uncomfortable so close tah mah manhood."

Taki sniffled once loudly and then jerked his head back. His eyes were wide and staring straight ahead where his face had moments ago been buried very close to Vo'jya crotch. A deep, bright red blush colored his blue cheeks giving them a lavender tint. After a moment he groaned and hung his head. "I… I'm grinnin' low, mon…" he whispered.

"I dun know what dat mean, bwa, but get yoself offa dat rock and le's go. Masta Jemba gwanna tan both our hides if we en't back befo' darkness falls."


	2. Part 1: Walk on Water

Walk on Watah

"Jus' keep runnin'!"

"But... but Vo'jya... I don' be ponderin' I can... keep grindin' like dis..." Taki panted, trying to keep up with the hunter's long-legged strides.

Vo'jya looked back over his shoulder and curled his lip, showing pointed teeth as he fixed Taki with dark blue eyes. "Oh den you wanna take care of da centaur train behind us? Go ahead, bwa, you was da one dat went runnin' into deir camp. I'm sure you gwanna be able ta handle dem jus' fine."

He never broke stride, streaking across the low grasslands of the Barrens. He knew they should have stuck to the road, but true to his trouble-finding nature Tak'tara had found some excuse to get them wandering the plains, dodging prowling packs of lions, scavenging hyenas, and now a rather aggravated troop of centaurs.

Vo'jya hated centaurs. Their incessant warring had destroyed much of Desolace, what he considered to be his home. And their aggressive and often unpredictable behavior was a constant threat to the inhabitants of Shadowprey Village. You could be friends with one of the tribes one day and at the top of their hunting list the next. Not to mention their stench. A mix of unwashed horse, man, and manure that attracted so many flies their filthy villages and the roads they patrolled were often thick with black swarms. Just thinking about it make Vo'jya's skin itch and he shuddered.

Lukka also hated centaurs and had disappeared from Vo'jya's shoulder in a greasy flap of molting feathers at the first sign of trouble. _Probably gourgin' hisself on some kodo carcass, damn bird, _Vo'jya thought to himself. An aerial distraction might have been nice right about then.

Taki looked back over his shoulder, noting at least five centaur with bows and spears still on their heels. He panted and stumbled, arms wheeling to catch his balance. He licked his lips, and began to slow up, ears drooping as he tossed out an earth totem to bind and distract their pursuers. "I-if'n truth you t'ink I can make it fly, mon..." he said, haltingly.

He stopped then and turned, brandishing the staff on his back and trying to look fierce. He tossed out a fire totem that started spitting fireballs in all directions as the young shaman squeezed his eyes shut and fought to bring the fire spirit within under his control. It began to settle, pulsing softly as the centaur grew closer. He could hear their grunting and see the black specks of flies at their flanks. Taki pulled at the forces in the air, feeling his fingertips begin to spark. Taki licked his lips again. "Shango, mon, don' leave my side," he murmured.

But before the Loa of storms could answer his entreaty a spear lodged itself with an audible thwunk into the fire totem, tipping it over where it ceased to pulse, the fire spirit inside receding. Another landed in the earth totem and then two arrows buried themselves in the grassy earth at Taki's feet. The lightning spell died on Taki's fingertips and he froze, breath hitching in panic as the centaur were almost upon him.

The angry shrieking hiss of arrows flew past Taki's drooping ears. The first buried itself in one of the centaur's shoulders, getting little but a howl of rage before being ignored. The second went wide and disappeared into the grasslands. But the third hit the lead centaur's leg, forcing it to draw up lame, stumbling and crashing to the ground, legs rolling beneath its bulky body as its companions reared and bucked, trying to avoid trampling him. It boutht the two trolls at least a little time.

Orange braids whipping around Taki looked over his shoulder. Vo'jya was lowering his bow, a powerful look of intense concentration on his face that for a moment took the young shaman's breath away before those eyes turned once more to him, and the set line of Vo'jya's mouth returned to a snarl.

"I was NOT bein' serious, mon!" he shouted as he shouldered his bow, reached to grasp Taki's arm, and wheeled them both about all in one fluid motion. "Now keep runnin'!" He shoved Taki forward and bent to lay a frost trap before sprinting forward, using his hand on the shaman's back to propel the youth before him.

"I'm grinnin'-"

"I know, I know. Yer grinnin' low. Stop apologizin' and use dat t'ick head o' yours once in a while, bwa!" Vo'jya grunted.

"But, Voj, you was waggin'-" Taki tried again between gasps for air.

"I know what I said! I wasn' serious, mon! Dey woulda torn you apart, an' yo' sistah en't payin' me ta get ya killed." He steered them towards one of the oases that dotted the Barrens, hoping they would be able to lose their pursuers in the dense foliage, or possibly beneath the water's surface. Testament to their foul smell centaurs hated water. They broke into the lush trees, miraculously avoiding disturbing any of the animals or more centaur that often patrolled the watering holes. "Head for da watah. We gwonna hide from dem at da bottom," Vo'jya said, pushing Taki before him.

Tak'tara perked. "I can give us da watah breathin'!"

Having grown up among fishermen on the docks of Sartheris Strand Vo'jya was an excellent swimmer and had no qualms about holding his breath. But it seemed as if it would make the bwa happy, so he grunted. "Do it den."

Reaching into his reagent pouch Taki felt the little fish scales and the vials of thick fishy oil he used to conjure the ability to breath in water and walk on its surface. Now if only he could remember which did which... "Okeh... dis one den!" he said, gripping a vial of the fish oil, smearing it over his hand, and then leaving an oily handprint on Vo'jya's bicep and then his own chest as he called on the assistance of the water spirits.

Nearly to the water's edge now Vo'jya never broke stride. Knowing the oasis was deep and loving the water as much as any whelp from a fishing village would, he took a small amount of pleasure in running and springing from a rock, twisting in the air, preparing to cut the water with a well executed dive. Only when he met the water it did not part beneath him, but rather rushed up to meet him as solid as rock. His momentum carried him end over shoulders, skudding across the surface of the oasis, sending up a spray of water as he flipped and rolled in a rather comical mockery of his centaur victim.

The hunter came to a stop in the center of the pool and flopped onto his back with a groan, blinking up at the dazzling sky beyond the oasis canopy not entirely sure what had just happened. The water lapped at his ears and soaked into his clothing, but was otherwise very solid beneath him. "Da spirits, dey be hatin' me."

"Vo'jya!" Taki cried, hurrying to him over the surface of the water. "Vo'jay are you huffin', mon? I used da wrong one... dat was sidewise of me, mon," he said worriedly, falling to his knees on the water beside the hunter.

"Oh you t'ink so, really!?" Vo'jya reached up to grab Taki's tusk and pull his face close. The shaman yelped. "You really are da world's worst shaman, bwa."

"I'm grinnin'-"

"Don' say it, bwa! Jus' get dis spell off'a me before dose centaur get here!" But even as he spoke the first arrow whizzed by and disappeared into the lake with a vicious plipping sound. Another soon followed.

"Okeh, okeh! You just gotta rub it off," Taki said, starting to rub at the oil on his chest.

"Rub what off?!" Vo'jya growled as another couple arrows slipped into the lake.

"Da oil!"

"What oil?!"

"On yer arm!" Taki shouted back, now rubbing at both his chest and Vo'jya's arm.

"What oil on mah-?"

The water gave way in a sudden wet rush, both shaman and hunter dropping out of sight below the surface in a roiling whoosh of oasis water. Vo'jya found his mouth full of liquid and wanted madly to break the surface and cough as he inhaled most of it, but instead he managed to get his bearings, tugging Taki towards the lake bed still, gripping his tusk.

Once at the bottom of the lake he shoved the shaman to the mud and shielded him with the bulk of his body. The water was deep and the arrows and spears lost their momentum as they broke the surface, turning from deadly projectiles to so much drift wood by the time they reached into the depths.

He felt Taki's fingers begin to paw at him, reaching up in the water to touch at his neck and face. Aggravated, he tried to bat the young shaman's hands away, only to suddenly find his own tusk grabbed and something shoved into his mouth. It was small and scratchy and salty... and as soon as he felt it on this tongue the intense burning in his lungs began to clear.

He looked down at Taki who was frowning up at him, brows drawn low over orange-red eyes. "_Breath!" _he mouthed. Vo'jya took a hesitant gasp of water and found it rather disturbing that it filled his lungs as lightly as air might. Taki was still holding onto his tusk and the hunter gripped the young shaman's wrist, pulling it away as he jerked his head to the side sulkily.

They waited, floating in the weightlessness of the clear water, watching each other with water-blurred vision until the arrows and spears ceased to break the surface of the water far above them. Vo'jya looked up, squinting at the dazzling sunlight filtering down through the blue depths. It was strangely peaceful to be there encased in a world apart.

He looked down at Taki to see the shaman looking back at him. His orange braids and the few spirit charms he wore around his neck were drifting lazily in the still water. The expression on his face was one of rapt attention mingled with a distant blankness that made Vo'jya look back for a moment in much the same way, one eyebrow arching slowly before he pulled both down, frowning.

He waved his hand before Taki's face, drawing a startled look from the shaman who then seemed to blush. Sighing in a strange exhalation of warm water the hunter reached out to grab the shaman's wrist and tugged him up from the bottom of the oasis, giving his arm a hard tug to propel him towards the surface.

Vo'jya broke the water with a gasp and a spluttering dribble of exhaled water. He made it to the bank with several powerful kicks, pulling himself up onto solid ground with a grumbling groan. He was still sore from biting it on the water at break-neck speed. Taki was soon beside him and they both flopped rather waterlogged onto the thick mossy carpet of the oasis.

"I don' be ponderin' it'll slip me next time which reagent does which, Vo'jya. I won' get it sidewise again. Truth, mon." Taki rolled onto his side and started to push himself up onto his knees as he wrung water from his hair.

"Yah, mon. Dat be real comfortin'," Vo'jya grumbled. "You still got dat damn watah on ya aftah alla dat?"

Taki startled and reached for the pack slung cross-wise over one shoulder. Eyes wide he rummaged through the contents and finally sighed in relief, pulling out two filled bladders of water one red and one blue. "Yah, I got dem still, Vo'jya," he said softly, cradling the skins close to his body.

"Good, 'cause I en't takin' yo hide alla da way back ta Tarren Mill on some fool spirit-speakah's errand." Vo'jya got to his feet, shaking off and adjusting all of his gear. He inspected his quiver to see how many arrows he'd lost. In the end fleeing from the centaur had probably been more costly than dispatching them would have been. He'd hoped to save his arrows - they were expensive after all - by simply outrunning the centaur. But even that undertaking had proven costly. He'd lost three distracting the centaur from trampling Tak'tara and at least five more in his tumble over the water.

Vo'jya cast a long look at the waters of the oasis. He supposed he could go back to find them... But then Taki was already on his feet again, stumbling towards the edge of the dense foliage. With another glance at the oasis the hunter grumbled, shouldered his bow, and cut his losses, turning to follow the young shaman back towards the open plains of the Barrens. The cow-wench who had sent them to fetch the water in the first place couldn't be far away now.

After leaving Splintertree Outpost Vo'jya had traveled with Taki and Master Jemba to Orgrimmar. The going had been slow even when they followed the river, because Taki did not know how to ride either a raptor or a wyvern, and Jemba did not feel like running. Finally he'd gotten Taki to the shaman trainers in the city where Vo'jya had fully expected to be able to wash his hands of the young Shatterspear troll.

Much to his annoyance and Taki's dismay they'd learned that Taki's basic shaman training was not complete enough to allow him to be considered as an initiate of the Earthen Ring. No matter that it had been the Earthen Ring itself who had requested that one of Far Seer Longtusk's children be sent to take his place in their numbers.

Taki had nearly been crushed, and it had been in an effort to stymie the gathering tears in his eyes that Vo'jya once again promised to stay with him long enough to get him through the rites of passage he would need in order to gain control of the last two elemental totems: water and wind. Thus, under the direction of the trainers, Vo'jya and Taki had struck out to find Islen Waterseer, leaving Jemba in the city where he seemed content to lounge about in the ankle-deep water around Dark Briar Lodge.

Upon their leave-taking Vo'jya had found his master lying on his back, his long, crooked nose, tusks, and lips protruding from the water. Poking him with one toe he'd said. "We be leavin', Masta Jemba. Yah already passed out, mon?"

"I en't. But you still lookin' like a fen'di even from here."

Narrowing his eyes the hunter responded. "I hope yah do pass out an' drown, mon."

"An' I hope dat Hakkari wind snake put anotha hole in yo' odah ear."

Thus he and the shaman had slowly made their way to Islen who had in turn sent them to find some other cow wench yet farther south. And from there they'd been sent halfway back around the world to get two pints of water, one from Ashenvale Forest and the other from some damn well in the undead-infested lands of Lordaeron. A week and a half later they were on their way back to see the cow bitch who just happened to like living in a hut in the midst of Quillboars.

"Aftah dis you gwanna get yah totem, right?" Vo'jya asked, falling into step next to Taki.

"I don' be ponderin' sure-like, Vo'jya. She wagged ta get da watah to make da sapta... den I gotta crack rocks wit' da spirits, mon," Taki said haltingly. He knew Vo'jya wanted to be done with this business of taking care of him, watching out for him, and guiding him all over the face of Azeroth. He was only doing it, Taki knew, because Zarjaya had paid him. Paid him enough gold to act as Taki's bodyguard for an entire month, though it had already been two weeks since they left Zoram'gar and the young shaman still didn't feel anywhere near ready to be left on his own in the world. Presumably he would, of course, have the Ring to guide and take care of him, but he had no idea what that meant or would be like... and to be honest he would much prefer to have the companionship of the grouchy hunter than all the wise teachers and masters in the world.

In fact he sometimes wished that he would never earn his final totems and the grace of the spirit wolf, all that stood between him and being prepared to become an initiate of the Earthen Ring. Perhaps Vo'jya would never leave him then, staying at his side out of the duty to keep his word. But Taki also knew that this was impossible and extremely childish of him. He only wanted Vo'jya to stay with him because he was the only troll outside of Shatterspear Village that he really knew. It didn't hurt that in Taki's opinion he was also strong and handsome. But remaining with Vo'jya was nothing but wishful thinking. Taki was not truly deluded enough to believe otherwise.

Vo'jya gave the little shaman a narrow look out of the corner of his eyes. "We gwanna get dis done inside'a da month, bwa?"

Taki hazarded a look at the hunter and shrugged. "I en't stone sure, mon. You gwanna hop da wind iffin' we don'?"

Vo'jya shrugged fluidly and looked away, absently tugging at one tusk. "I guess we be crossin' dat bridge when we get to it, bwa," he mumbled.

Taki looked at Vo'jya for a moment longer and then looked away, down at his feet and smiled. "Irie, mon."

Taki had hoped he would never find himself in Silverpine forest or Lordaeron ever again. It had been bad enough running through the place with Vo'jya the first time on their way to Tarren Mill to get the water sample needed for the sapta. But then after all that work just to get the sapta Islen, the tauren shamaness who was willing to guide him to his water totem, had sent them right back to the plagued lands of the Eastern Kingdoms.

The forest was cold and wet and stank of death. The very air was thick with the restless spirits of the dead, undead, and dying and it made Taki's skin crawl. What was even more disturbing to the shaman was the fact that Vo'jya seemed perfectly at home with the undead Forsaken inhabitants as if he could not feel what Taki felt.

Did he not hear the angry voice whispering through the trees and around every tombstone in the great cemetery of the Sepulcher? Taki thought he knew the voice, but was loath to put a name to it, for the name made him shiver even as it filled his mind with senseless peace.

He'd felt miserable and drained almost since they stepped off the zeppelin. He'd felt somewhat the same the first time they'd passed through the plagued lands, but had been able to stay upbeat since they did not dwell there and stuck to the road, which eventually led them to the living lands of the Hillsbrad Foothills. But now to have to be back there actually picking their way through the forests, face-to-face with the undead, and staying in this hideous place of decay that the Forsaken called a village had taken its toll on him.

He felt tired... drained just being there. On top of that he had had to fight with one of the great elemental spirits, and it was no wonder it had become corrupted dwelling in a place like this. So was it really any wonder that he felt so weak and strange?

"Bwa? Bwa, where you be at?" Vo'jya's voice carried dimly above him.

"I bein' down here, Vo'jya," Taki called, looking up the chiseled, right-cornered earthen walls of the empty grave he was sitting in.

The Darkspear hunter's face and shoulders appeared at the lip of the hole. "What in da name of da spirits are you doin' sittin' in a grave, mon?!"

Taki shivered again, and hugged his newly acquired water totem a bit closer to his chest. "It be all hush-like down here, mon. En't no voices cryin'. Deep in da earth where dey restin' he be restin', too, Vo'jya."

The hunter cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head, disturbed by the sight of the young shaman peering up at him from the fresh grave, orange-red eyes ringed, hollow, and wide, skin and clothes smeared with dirt. "Who be restin', mon?"

Taki licked his lips which felt dry and chapped. "Samedi."

Vo'jya winced visibly. "Watch what you waggin', bwa!" Vo'jya caught himself and sighed. 'Waggin' another of the shaman's phrases he'd recently picked up. He fixed Taki with stern dark blue eyes. "We in his domain, mon. Talkin' 'bout da Loa all da time like dat gwonna bring da voodoo righ' to yah. Leave dat to da Shadow Huntahs an' Witch Doctors, bwa, and get yoself outta dat grave befo' Samdei an' da voodoo find da bot' of us. Lookin' at'chu down dere givin' me da shakes, mon."

He reached down, offering his hand to Taki who just looked up at him blankly for a few moments before reaching back. Vo'jya half pulled, half lifted him from the hole and set Taki on his feet where he swayed a bit. Vo'jya looked at the young shaman critically, brushing some of the dark, loose earth from his clothing. Grave dirt was smeared across the bare blue skin of his shoulders and upper arms where his leather vest did not cover and was staining his loose abada pants. "How long you been in dat hole, bwa?" he asked.

Taki shrugged, finally putting his water totem away in the pack at his hip. "Since you took a shake to da Undacity or so I pondah, mon. I weren't about tah go back near dat place. It full o' da spirits and da voices... dey all be screamin' dere. Sharp-like."

Vo'jya regarded the young shaman with a worried eye, shifting his weight as he continued to wipe the smears of dirt from Taki's skin with calloused fingers. "I told ya dat I had business dere, bwa. An' I knew you wasn' comin' along, dat's why I come back fo' ya. But ya didn' have ta sit in a grave while I was away neitha, mon. I thought you was gwonna sleep in da inn. Odahwise I woulda had you come along an' wait at de zeppelin. Now I gottah be back trackin' wit'chu innyways, bwa." Vo'jya tsked in annoyance, trying to look stern to cover how unsettled he truly was.

"I'm grinnin' low, Voj," Taki said softly, still fiddling with his pack, not making eye contact. He did not bother to point out that the "inn" was really a mausoleum. Was there really much difference between sitting in there and sitting in a quiet grave?

Taki felt dazed and lethargic, as if somehow distant from his own body. Even Vo'jya's hands voluntarily perusing his skin did not phase him. "But it was all hushed-up down dere."

Vo'jya furrowed his eyebrows again and sighed. "I got dat, mon. But sittin' in graves en't right behavior for no one dis side o' da voodoo." He leaned forward, flaring the nostrils of his long nose close to Taki's hair. "Least yah en't smellin' like death, bwa. We get goin' now we can be back in Orgrimmar inside a day." He tugged at Taki's arm, leading him out of the cemetery and towards the road that would take them back towards Undercity and the zeppelin back to Kalimdor.

The hunter gave a sharp whistle, calling Lukka, who unfurled himself from his perch on a gravestone, looking more at home with the undead inhabitants of the Sepulcher than with his living companion, and flapped awkwardly to Vo'jya's shoulder. They walked in silence down the ruined road for a time, Taki still watching his feet.

"Oy, Vo'jya," he said at last, looking up at the hunter who glanced back at him. "You don' be catchin' inny of it, do ya? Da voices, dey en't watah clear-like fo' you."

"I en't hearin' no voices, bwa. Not here, not innywhere. You a shaman. En't not'ing wrong wit' you hearing da spirits," Vo'jya said with a dismissive hand-wave.

Taki blinked and looked down at his feet again, speaking very softly. "I en't stone sure, Vo'jya. I guess I t'ought everybody catch what I be catchin'. But mebbe not so much."

Vo'jya was still looking at Taki out of the corner of his eye. The dim light of the forest cast their shadows long on the road behind them, and for the briefest moment in the periphery of his vision the Darkspear hunter thought he saw a roiling blackness in the vague darkness of Tak'tara's shadow. But when he looked fully their shadows were no more interesting than he expected them to be. Still the sight had started a strange buzzing sensation behind Vo'jya's eyes.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don' worry, bwa. Dis place givin' me da jumps as much as you. Soon enough we be back in Orgrimmar and den I buy us bot' a drink. Jus' make sure you keep dat mouth shut dis time, bwa. I dunno what'chu said ta dat orc, but I en't getting paid enough to get inta brawls fo' yah alla da time, mon."

Taki made a soft snorting sound. "I weren't waggin' not'in' at dat orc, mon."

"He want ta pick a fight wit'chu fo' not'in'?"

Taki glanced up at Vo'jya and then away again, his ears coloring a lavender blush. "Mebbe I was makin' da hard eyes at his elf friend."

"What'chu wanna be starin' at some elf for, bwa?" Vo'jya snorted. "Dey fickle as da weatha."

Taki made a face, waving his hands a bit in tired exasperation. "I dun be ponderin' straight-like, but dey just bein' so fierce on mah eyes! Gathah dat deir skin is dis... dis... pink color like da outside da same as da inside. And dey en't got no tusks and dey en't got no nose ta be waggin' about. Only ting dey got is dem ears and da res' being pink an' flat, mon! An' den dey bein' have all dem fingahs. What dey need alla dem fingahs fo', mon?! Tell me dey don' look all hinky an' sidewise! I en't neva spied not'in' like it. An' I couldn' stop wit da hard eyes. I couldn' look away, mon!"

Vo'jya's mouth dropped open a bit and he stared at Taki with wide eyes for a moment before laughing abruptly. "I en't sure exac'ly what'chu jus' said, bwa, but I be pretty sure you jus' called a Blood Elf da mos' hideous ting you eva saw. An' -dat- is funneh!"

Taki sighed, slumping, feeling all the more tired for his excited outburst. He grumbled under his breath.

Still chuckling Vo'jya put a hand on his shoulder. "Jus' keep yo' eyes and yo' waggin' to yoself and everything be irie, bwa."

Taki leaned slightly into Vo'jya touch. "I jus' wanna rest it somewhere dat it don' be smellin' like da dead, and tings get hushed up real quiet-like. Dis place be givin' me da shakes, mon."

"Jus' pray dat we don' have to come back here fo' yo damned wind totem," Vo'jya grumbled.

"May da Loa forbid it," Tak'tara swore.

Vo'jya whapped the back of Taki's head with the heel of his hand. "Dere you go talkin' about da voodoo again, bwa. En't a good idea in dis place. Who know what kind'a attention you be drawin' to yo'self."

((Author's Note: This chapter references the shaman class totem quests, which were removed in the Cataclysm expansion. They sent you all over Azeroth, and were required to advance your shaman's abilities.))


	3. Part 1: Howl Like da Wind

Taki's whimpers echoed softly off the cave walls as the young shaman's fingers clawed at the stone floor. "V-Vo'jya!" he cried as the pain increased. He grit his teeth, trying to hold back the tears that were forming beneath his eyelids. "It be hurtin' mon, heavy-like! I can't be grindin' ta dis!"

Vo'jya struggled to hold Taki's hips still, pinning them back to the cave floor with one hand. His dark blue eyes were narrowed with both concentration and irritation. A drop of sweat detached from his temple and ran down the side of his face to hover for a moment at his jaw before dripping onto his thigh.

"You were da one dat got yoself inta dis, bwa," he growled. "Yah wanted me tah do dis, an' I en't stopping wit' it half done. Dat jus' gwonna make it ten times worse in da end. Now relax, mon... and stop wigglin'!" He prodded farther into the small, wet hole wincing as he felt it tear slightly knowing how much it must be hurting Taki. Spirits just watching the bwa was hurting him! But the hole was too small like this. He wouldn't be able to maneuver...

Taki screamed, tossing his head and arching off the cave floor, fingers still clawing at the stone. "Stop!" he sobbed. With a snarl the hunter pulled back, wiping the bloody tips of his fingers on the thighs of his pants. Taki immediately curled in on himself, reaching for his leg, whimpering louder now as the tears began to fall.

Vo'jya rocked back onto his heels and then onto his rear, running an aggravated hand through his hair. "What'chu wan' me ta do, bwa?! How am I gwonna sit here and leave dat arrowhead in yo' leg?! Dat what'chu wan'?!"

Taki sobbed again, still holding his leg. He wanted to pull it up to his chest to make himself as small as possible if as if that would make the pain as small as possible, but it hurt just to move it. It was the first time he'd ever been wounded more seriously than a cut or a scrape from running around the village valley. Unlike many of their cousins the Shatterspear did not revel in rituals of pain and mutilation. They had left such practices behind when they left the vale and founded their new secluded home in the mountains of Darkshore. Thus pain, real pain, had never been experienced in Tak'tara's short lifetime.

He knew that if the arrowhead was dug out he could heal himself fairly quickly and the pain would be gone, but three times now already Vo'jya had tried and three times Taki had begged him to stop as he dug around in the raw, bleeding wound. It was beginning to thoroughly irritate the hunter. Master Jemba's training techniques had rarely been pleasant and not infrequently resulted in broken bones or worse. Being shoved into a scorpion's nest at the age of twelve and being told "Okeh, I see ya back at da village den!" while staring up from the pit at his master's receding form was one of Vo'jya's earliest memories of hunter training. Thus he found Taki's squeamishness over a little thing like being shot in the leg by an arrow to be both annoying and rather unmanly.

"I... I dunno, Vo'jya. Dun be asp-sharp, mon. It be hurtin' heavy..." Taki whimpered.

Vo'jya got back onto his knees and crawled over to Taki's side. "Look, bwa, you leave dat t'ing in yo leg and pretteh soon dere en't gwonna be no good way ta get it out again. You a troll, right?"

"S-sure as stone," Taki answered, looking up at Vo'jya out of the corner of his eye. He reached up with one hand to scrub tears off of his cheeks.

"Den you know what a troll body does when it gets hurt. Soonah or latah if'n you don' let me get dat arrowhead outta yo' thigh dat hole gwonna close up on its own and den you gwonna have a real problem nottin' short of a sharp blade gwonna be fixin'. Now what'chu wan me tah do?"

"I d-don be ponderin'..." Taki said in a whisper, closing his eyes again. He put his head back down on the floor and took a shuddery breath.

Vo'jya furrowed his eyebrows and tugged at one of his tusks before touching the shaman's shoulder. He tried to swallow his irritation and impatience. "Can you hold still long enough fo' me to get a good look at da wound?"

Taki swallowed and then nodded. "Okeh, mon. Jus' don' be pokin' too deep," he said quietly.

The light was bad in the cave, so Vo'jya took a moment to light a flare. It flickered and guttered on the dirty stone floor as he leaned over Taki's leg, pushing his bloodied leather kilt up a bit farther and wiping gently at the drying blood on his blue skin with a dirty shirt he'd produced from his pack. The shaman winced as he wiped around the ragged wound. With the flickering light from the flare he could see that the wound was actually quite deep, and from the spasm of pain and the barking cry that came from Taki when he pressed around the ragged edges Vo'jya was fairly certain the arrowhead was either scraping against or partly embedded in the bone.

He tsked, grinding his teeth together as he began to regret his earlier shortness with the young shaman. Of course his sympathy was somewhat tempered by the fact that this whole situation was once again Taki's fault. One would have thought that their dealings with the centaur in the Barrens would have taught Taki a lesson, and yet here they were in a cave in Thousand Needles dealing with the result of yet another run-in with a camp of the stinking horse-men. Staring and pointing at his map, babbling on about some cave up in the rock cliffs Taki had led them right into a patrolling guard. This time Vo'jya had not wasted any time in dispatching the centaur, but not before one of the bowmen had buried his arrow deep in Taki's thigh. Vo'jya cursed himself. He should have realized how deep the arrowhead was when it broke off from the shaft when he'd tried to remove it, but he'd just chalked it up to shoddy centaur craftsmanship.

Vo'jya rocked back again. "I en't gwonna be able tah fix dis with'chu screaming like dat, bwa. We gwonna ge'chu to Freewind Post. Dere be some kinda real healah dere dat take care of dis, I'm sure."

Taki looked up at him with furrowed eyes. "B-but Vo'jya I dun t'ink I'm gwonna be grindin' tah dat on mah feet, mon."

Vo'jya scowled and started to get to his feet. "I en't makin' you walk, bwa. It en't dat far. I can carry you." Taki's eyes widened and he started to blush and sniffle. Vo'jya scowled and rolled his eyes. "Jus' don' be makin' dat stupid face at me. Grow a pair, mon."

"V-Voj..." but anything else Taki might have had in mind to say was cut off as the hunter stooped to scoop the shaman up, lifting him easily if non-too-gently up and over his shoulder so that Taki's upper half dangled down his back. As the movement jarred him Taki bit back another cry of pain and clutched at the back of Vo'jya's tunic. As the wave of pain and the nausea it brought with it subsided the young shaman blinked wearily down the hunter's back.

When Vo'jya had said he would carry him this wasn't exactly what he had envisioned, but he knew he was in no position to complain even if his head did start to throb with rushing blood as they began to move. He tried several times to use his hands as some kind of leverage on Vo'jya's back to make himself more comfortable, but his efforts met only with sharp words from the hunter to stop squirming. The pain in his leg was at least not jarring any longer and faded into a sharp ache as he watched the road and the backs of Vo'jya's heels.

It was then that he noticed the small gap between the back of Vo'jya's tunic and the top of his mail and leather leggings where a swath of his dusky skin was playing peek-a-boo as the hunter walked. Taki flushed, but kept his eyes trained on this small portion of Vo'jya's skin, finding that he was occasionally rewarded with a very brief glimpse of the very top of his rear as the leggings gaped a bit wider. For some reason taking so much from such a small thing made the young shaman feel even more defeated than he had before. It was just skin, he told himself; why should Vo'jya's skin affect him so strongly and make him feel so impotent?

"Dat a big sigh you be layin' on, bwa."

Taki blushed and turned his head so that he could partway press his face against Vo'jya's back, trying to make sure his tusk didn't dig in. "Ya... I'm just feelin' drafty in mah head ovah alla dis."

Vo'jya snorted. "Drafty in yo head a good way ta describe you, bwa."

Taki sighed again and tried to keep from sniffling. "By dis time tomorrow I be havin' mah air totem and den you en't gwonna have ta worry about mah drafy head no more, mon."

Vo'jya grunted and was silent for a few paces. "I said I'd get'chu to da Ring, bwa. I en't gwonna just leave you out in da middle of da needles."

Taki felt a little more of his energy drain away and he slumped farther down Vo'jya's back. "Dat be some comfort I be ponderin'... small-like."

Vo'jya raised an eyebrow and turned his head as if to peer back at Taki, but of course all he could see was his legs and his rump bent over his shoulder. He twitched his long nose and made another grunting sound, tugging at one tusk with his free hand. The bwa had been somewhat strange in the last week. Well he supposed he had always been strange. But ever since the day he'd pulled Taki out of the empty grave at the Sepulcher he'd seemed somehow... distant. He felt like thin was the right word, but he didn't understand how it could be. He hadn't changed in any physical way, save perhaps a deepening of the circles beneath his slanted, orange eyes and a slight hollowing of his cheeks. But Vo'jya could easily chalk those things up to the fact that Taki hadn't been sleeping well, and so of course neither had Vo'jya.

Dreams and nightmares seemed to constantly wake the both of them, leaving Taki often disoriented and crying, and not often remembering any of the ordeal the next morning. The hunter couldn't be sure if the abnormal behavior was something new, or if he had just begun to actually pay attention to the young shaman.

Taki often seemed to be staring off into space, into some place between here and the horizon, but his eyes did not glass over when he did so. He was alert, attentive as if keenly aware of things that no one else was. He remembered how Taki had seemed to argue with himself often when they first met, walking through Ashenvale with a constant stream of talk. It had annoyed Vo'jya at the time, and continued to annoy him now, but he was starting to believe that Taki was not so much talking to himself as responding to things only he could hear. Things only he could "catch". But whether this was an indication of Taki gaining prowess in the shamanistic ways or simply belied some disease of the mind Vo'jya was not willing to wager. And whether or not it could possibly indicate something else entirely Vo'jya was not even willing to think about.

"Why I be carin' innyway?" he grumbled out loud, pulling his lip back over one tusk.

"What'chu waggin' up dere, mon?" Taki called from behind his shoulder.

"Uh... not'in'. Dere I can see da lift up into da post now. We almost dere, bwa."

"Okeh, I'm grindin',Voj."

"You givin' me a crick in mah back is what you doin'."

The Tauren of Freewind Post were more than hospitable to the two trolls who wandered in dusty and bleeding from the road below the lofty outpost, especially when they learned of Taki's quest. A rather buxom Tauren female took Taki off of Vo'jya's hands. The young shaman's eyes went the widest Vo'jya had ever seen them as he was held rather tightly against the large woman's furry chest. His expression said "don't leave me!" and all Vo'jya could do was laugh as he was carted off into a hut to be fixed. The hunter took a short amble around the plateau, finally approaching a brave with a black hide who appeared to be knowledgeable, but not too important. The perfect sort of person in Vo'jya's opinion.

"Pardon me, mon, but you don' happen to know innyt'ing about where we could find Prate Cloudseeah, do ya?" he asked, adjusting his bow on his shoulder.

The tall male looked up from the skins he was working and blinked slowly. It had taken some time, but Vo'jya had been around enough of the Tauren to understand that it was a mistake to confuse their purposeful nature with what appeared to be slowness. Trolls were quick to talk even if they didn't know what they were talking about. They were even quicker to act; a race that lived by whims of far darker spirits that those known to the Tauren. He waited for the brave to speak.

"Yes, friend. Prate is a shamaness. She lives in the cliffs to the north east." He pointed with one thick, fur-covered finger and then, done with the conversation, went back to his skins.

"T'anks, mon."

As Vo'jya turned away there was a sharp squawking sound and something large, scruffy, and smelling rather unpleasant glanced off of his shoulder and floundered to the plateau floor. Raising an eyebrow Vo'jya looked down at Lukka who looked back at him with angry, beady eyes, wings halfway unfolded. His scrawny body was expanding and contracting with the quick pace of his breaths.

"Where da hell you been, mon?" he asked, squatting down to gingerly pick up the ruffled-looking vulture. "You en't gettin' any youngah, and you en't lookin' or smellin' so good." Lukka hissed and squawked again as the hunter propped him up on his shoulder. With that Vo'jya went to make preparations for them to spend the night at the small, but more than serviceable inn.

"How long you t'ink he gwonna be doin' dis?" Vo'jya asked dryly as he watched Taki, now in his newly acquired spiritwolf form, bound back and forth along the precarious ledge outside Prate Cloudseer's cave.

The Tauren shamaness slowly turned her head, watching Taki as well. She shrugged. "No telling, friend. Could be all day. It's quite an experience when it's all new."

Vo'jya looked up at her elongated bovine face and sighed at her placid smile. She seemed perfectly content to stand there and watch Taki frolic. But then again this was probably the most excitement she'd had in a while living by herself in a cave in a cliff side in a place as forsaken as Thousand Needles.

He looked west, his mind following the road that he knew led up through Ferelas and all the way to Desolace. How long had it been since he had been home? The thought made him grunt and curl his lip, turning his gaze away to the east, his mind now following the road that led down to the Salt Flats and the Mirage Raceway.

Vo'jya sucked air through his teeth and raised an eyebrow. It had been a long time since he'd been to the raceway. Lukka gargled close to his ear and then started to nibbled at the ends of his short hair. "Oi, bwa," he called, turning to look at Taki's still bounding wolf-self.

The young shaman paused, transparent ears flicking towards Vo'jya as he sat and began to pant. Vo'jya tried not to be too disturbed by the sight as he ambled towards Taki. "I be back in a few hours," he said, reaching out with the compulsion to pat his head.

Taki cocked his head to the side and then in a strange poof of air was back to being a troll, crouched on the ground looking up at Vo'jya with an expression that had changed little. He still looked like some sort of lost dog. "Where you bein' shakin' off to, mon? I can go wit'chu. Mah leg is feelin' rain-right sure as stone."

"I en't goin' far. Jus' got some business to attend to, bwa. Stay here an' talk yo' spirit talk wit' Miss Cloudseeah," Vo'jya grunted.

Taki stood up, looking slightly nervous. He took a step closer to Vo'jya. "I en't got no more waggin' tah do wit' her, Voj. I... I got mah totem an' mah wolf form trainin'. Mah hands be washed o' dat now, mon. We can be hoppin' da wind togedah." He smiled, but his brows here drawn down.

Vo'jya flared his nostrils. "You evah t'ink dat maybe I just need a few hours wit'out you draggin' at mah heels, bwa? Now jus' stay here!"

Taki flinched back slightly and hung his head, twitching his nose. "Okeh, mon. I'm grinnin' low. I en't lookin' ta rub ya raw."

Vo'jya sighed, running a hand through his hair as he turned away. "Whatevah dat means." He whistled at Lukka who had his head tucked up under his wing as he began to amble down the steep path that led away from Prate Cloudseer's perch in the cliffs. The bird slowly unfurled and gave Taki one narrow look before flapping off of Vo'jya's shoulder to slowly circle around in the air above the hunter.

Looking after Vo'jya Tak'tara stepped to the top of the path, completely ignoring the lazy look he was getting from the Tauren shamaness. He licked his lips and then called out, "You gwonna be comin' back, en't you, Vo'jya?" The hunter paused and turned to look back up the path. If he'd had any thoughts of not coming back they all dissolved at the pitiful sight of Taki staring after him with an expression that looked on the verge of tears, one hand worrying at the front of his vest, bottom lip between his teeth. "You en't hoppin' da wind on me, right? Not til you get me to da Ring?"

_You a suckah, Vo'jya. You always been a suckah. _He sighed, tugging on one tusk. "I told ya, bwa. I'm just gwonna be lightin' out for a couple of hours. I be back. Jus' stay here."

Taki smiled and then scowled, trying to look serious. "You bettah not be waggin' Dambala's tongue at me. You best be shakin' back here. Someday I gwonna be da Far Seer and den I find you -innywhere-, mon."

Vo'jya's mouth fell slightly open and he stared for a moment, a little shiver going up his spine. "You creepy when you waggin' crazeh, bwa. An' for da love of da spirits stop talkin' bout da voodoo alla da time!" he called as he turned away and started to jog down the path.

With nothing in the barren, rocky landscape to hold in much of the heat of the day it was already beginning to grow cool as dusk settled over Thousand Needles. But the pace Vo'jya was keeping as he topped the steep path up to Prate Cloudseer's cave kept him warm. The Tauren woman looked up at him slowly from a small fire she was tending and lazily brought a thick finger to her muzzle.

Taki was curled on his side, obviously asleep and mumbling to himself with a light skin blanket tossed over him near the fire. Vo'jya curled his lip over his tusks and ran a hand agitatedly through his short hair. Ignoring the shushing from the shamaness Vo'jya stepped around the fire and poked Taki with his foot. The young Shatterspear muttered and made a fussy sound, hunching in around himself a bit more.

"Hey! Bwa, wake up, mon," Vo'jya said hurriedly. "We got business." He poked at Taki again with his foot, prodding a bit harder at his ribs. Again Taki grumbled, rolling onto his back, throwing an arm over his face.

"Don'... don'... I en't readeh yet..."

Vo'jya crouched down, shaking Taki's shoulder. "We have to go, bwa! I have business in Orgrimmar yestahday. Now wake yo'self up or I'm gwonna leave you here!"

"Nnn," Taki made a sound that was almost like a growl, and shook his head, eyebrows drawing down. "Don' be doin'... alla dat... I en't readeh... get shakin'..." he mumbled, pawing futilely at the air a bit, his physical agitation growing.

"Tak'tara wake up!" Vo'jya shouted, jerking his shoulder.

"I wagged ya I en't readeh!" Taki shouted, sitting bolt upright. The heel of his hand flew forward and contacted the side of Vo'jya's face with far more force than was physically possible from the young shaman's strength alone. As Vo'jya's head snapped to the side and he over balanced, tumbling back onto his rump, he could have sworn he heard distant thunder in his head, or perhaps that was just the sound of bones cracking in his face. Ears still ringing, his head, face, and neck throbbing from the blow, Vo'jya heard Taki gasp sharply and also found that for a few moments he was unable to speak.

"Vo'jya?!" Taki exclaimed, apparently surprised. The hunter raised his head and gave the shaman a long, dark look, grinding his teeth together, the act of which made his face hurt more. Taki was still sitting upright, his usually slanted orange eyes wide and reflecting the firelight. His mouth was agape and his face and the tips of his ears were beginning to turn a deep lavender color. They stared at each other for a long moment. Finally Taki said, his voice almost a whisper. "Did I jus' t'row a shock in yo' face, mon?"

Vo'jya raised an eyebrow. "I dunno. You tell me, bwa. You most certainly hit a whole helluva lot hardah den I woulda t'ought if'n dat was just yo' fist." He glowered at the young troll and reached up to touch his cheek, wincing at the sharp pain he felt there. "I t'ink you broke mah face."

Taki scrambled to throw off the skin blanket, scuttling to Vo'jya's side and stuttering apologies. "I'm grinnin' low, Voj! I musta been dreamin' again, stone sure. A-an' mah dreams dey en't so sweet like dese days, mon." He reached up, taking the hunter's face in his hands, an action which simply increased Vo'jya's pain as the shaman wrenched his already jarred neck. "I... I be healin' it. No heap tah dat."

Vo'jya was about to pull away with a snarl, but the frantic, apologetic look on Taki's young face gave him pause even as the shaman's thumb pressed painfully against his cheekbone. _Suckah..._ he heard whispered softly through his head, and then simply sighed, giving up on resisting. "Okeh."

Taki seemed to beam slightly as he scooted a tiny bit closer. A small, green glow began to illuminate Vo'jya's vision, and he knew that it was coming from Taki's hands. For a moment there was an uncomfortable, itchy, growing feeling on and under his skin, but it soon faded into a simple sense of relief from pain.

"Dere, all rain right, mon," Taki said softly as the green glow faded. His hands, however, remained on Vo'jya's face, one on either cheek for several more moments as the two trolls continued to look at each other in the failing light of dusk and the glow of the fire beside them. Vo'jya didn't know why, but it was difficult for him in that moment to look away, and he might have gone on staring back at Taki and hearing the word _suckah _repeated over and over in the back of his mind if he had not become aware of the strange chuffing sound from behind him. Turning his head to look back over his shoulder he saw the Tauren shamaness still sitting by the fire and now apparently laughing.

Vo'jya scowled, curling a lip, as he remembered they were not alone, more perturbed by the fact that he had forgotten about the shamaness' presence in the first place than anything else. Grumbling to himself he shifted, reaching up to pull Taki's hands away from his face as he got back into a crouching position and started to stand up. Taki let his hands fall away, following Vo'jya with his eyes, peering up at him as he stood. "You en't gwonna-"

"No, I en't!" Vo'jya snapped. "Now we gotta go. I got important business in Orgrimmar." He reached down to help haul Taki to his feet.

The young shaman stumbled slightly as he went to get his bag, slinging it crosswise from one shoulder. "But... I t'ought we was supposed to be takin' a shake to Thundah Bluff. En't dat bein' where da Ring-?"

"I told you I would get you dere, an' I will get you dere," Vo'jya said levelly, adjusting his quiver and bow. He then reached into his pack and pulled out a rather bulgy looking sack that jingled when he shook it in Taki's direction. "But I had a good day at da races, an now I have business I need to take care of in Orgrimmar. Unless you like da idea of dere bein' a price on mah head, mon."

Taki blinked and paused for a moment. "Dere's a price on yo head?" he asked a bit incredulously, barely remembering to bow respectfully to the shamaness who gave him a calm nod as he started to follow Vo'jya back down the steep path.

Vo'jya shrugged and grinned back at Taki. "Not aftah I get somma dis money to Orgrimmar."

"B-but I been ponderin' da money you got from mah sistah had yo debts all covah'd up, mon," Taki said, sliding and catching himself on some loose gravel.

"It also been payin' for draggin' yo spirit-speakin' ass halfway across da world an back again. We been savin' some travelin' on foot dis whole time, but you t'ink it free stayin' in inns an' payin' fo' supplies an' food and alla dat watah you drinkin' alla da time?" He shrugged, facing back down the path and turning them back towards Freewind Post. "At da end o' alla dis I was still commin' up short."

"Truth, mon, how much money you be owin'?!" Taki exclaimed, still fiddling with his staff and pack as he trotted after the hunter.

"More den I had four hours ago, an' less den I have now," Vo'jya replied with a smirk in his voice. "An' lucky us now we can afford tah take da flight path. We be in Orgrimmar in no time."

"What?" Taki asked, a slightly panicky sound in his voice. "You best be splittin' on dat. I en't nevah been on one'a dem t'ings. Dat big hinky flyin' boat was sidewise enough, Voj!"

Vo'jya waved his hand dismissively through the air. "You gwonna be fine. Besides you got da air spirits on yo side now, right?"

"I en't gwonna be doin' it, mon! I en't goin' up dere in Shango's graps!" Taki cried, balling his hands into fists and stamping a foot, halting in the road.

Vo'jya flinched at the mention of the Loa, but walked a few more paces before he turned around, realizing Taki was no longer walking close behind him. "Okeh. Don' go. You can stay here, an' dis time I won' be comin' back, bwa." He shrugged and turned to keep walking.

"You can't, Vo'jya!" Taki cried, hurrying after him and reaching out to grab his wrist, tugging it to make him stop and turn partway around again. "You promised! You can't be waggin' Damba-"

"I can do whatevah I need to do, an' right now I need tah get tah Orgrimmar fast," Vo'jya cut him off. "I said I wouldn't abandon you until I got you to da Ring, but if you choose not to follow me den dat's all on you, bwa." Vo'jya's voice grew low and dark and he jerked his hand out of Taki's grasp, reaching up to grab hold of one of the shaman's tusks, pulling his face closer to his own with a sharp tug. "An' da next time I hear da name of one of da voodoo spirits cross yo lips, so help me, bwa, I will wash mah hands of you right where you stand."

Taki's lower lip trembled. "Why you get so pushed ovah da Loa, mon?" he mumbled, trying to maintain eye contact, but finding it difficult to do so and keep the tears from forming in his eyes.

"Cause I don' need inny more troubles in mah life den I already got," he let go of Taki's tusk, flaring his nostrils. "You leave da spirits alone and dey be forgettin' about you just da same. Bettah dat den dey interferin' alla da time. You want tah invoke da voodoo spirits, you do it on yo' own time, bwa. Don' be doin' it when I'm standin' next to ya." Taki's eyelashes fluttered and Vo'jya grit his teeth, taking a small step back. "An' don' be cryin' again! Why you cryin' alla da time?! You en't just da world's worst shaman, bwa, sometimes I swear you da world's worst troll."

Taki scrubbed fiercely at his eyes and cheeks. "I don' be ponderin' how dat likely when you gone more sidewise o' yo' people den I evah done!" Taki cried, screwing up his face angrily. "You shakin' out all ovah alla da time from slicks because o' da mess you made wit' jangles dat en't even yours! Eyes wide for no one but yo'self! No loyalty, no pride in bein' a troll, Darkspear or oddawise! An' don' be tryin' ta wag bettah! What pupil be waggin' a forked asp's tongue like da one you usin' at deir own mastah?! You en't got inny respect, mon. Not for yoself, not for yo' mastah, not fo' yo' race, not even fo' dah spirits dat been hand-holdin' you t'rough dis world since da day you was red an' screamin'! No wondah da spirits be hatin' you like you always sayin'!"

Taki took a hiccuping breath, somewhat startled by his own vehement outburst. He scrubbed at his cheeks some more, still snuffling, his breath catching on his shuddering breaths. The expression on Vo'jya's face was unreadable, but it was hard. Taki looked away. "I be ponderin' real hard-like that I en't no good at bein' a shaman. Waggin' wit' da right spirits, it en't easy fo' me! It en't nevah been easy wit alla dem voices. So you can wag however it pleases you, Vo'jya, about how I bein' failin' at what I do. But don' you evah wag not one word dat I en't grindin' to what I am and mah duties as one of -our- people. I respec' mah eldahs, mah culture, da Loa, and alla da spirits dat be a part of what it means to be bein' a troll. I nevah hardly knew mah faddah. He nevah shake out tah crack rocks wit' me or my sistah. But it be my duty to take his place in da Ring. So dat's what I'm grindin' tah do, mon!"

There was a dark, heavy silence over the road where the two trolls stood, facing each other. A sharp chilly wind, funneled between the towering rock spires, blew past them causing both to shiver. Vo'jya spoke first, "You don' know innyt'ing about me and mah mastah, bwa, so I'm gwonna forget dat you mentioned innyt'ing about it. An' dere be a lot more to bein' a troll den yo' happy, dancin' fool of a tribe be teachin' you. It's more den duty an' honor an' respect; dere be darkness, bwa. Darkness you en't nevah imagined dat come wit bein' a troll, dat come wit' da legacy yo' happy, naive Shattahspear kinsmen try to shut out in deir perfect little village. So go ahead. Dance an' sing an' praise da Loa. But every time you do, every time you call deir names, you callin' out to da voodoo, bwa, and every time you do it be gettin' closah and it bringing da darkness no troll can truly shut out wit' it."

Taki swallowed, his eye still wide, but dry now. The darkness... "Vo-" he began, but the troll hunter had turned away, continuing to head down the darkening road.

"Jus' pick up yo' feet and get on da damn flightpath when we get dere. I'm done talkin' about dis, an' yo' tempah tantrum."

Taki took a deep, shuddering breath and then jogged after Vo'jya, but he felt like all of his energy was gone, even more so than usual. Limbs heavy and weary the young shaman trailed after Vo'jya, silently nursing his growing discontent.


	4. Part 1: Play Wit' Fire

"How many time I gotta tell ya, bwa? You gotta keep yo' hips low," Vo'jya said, trying to keep his voice even as his aggravation grew.

Taki was trying hard not to look Vo'jya in the eyes, but could not control the lavender blush that felt like it was scalding his cheeks and ears. Each time the hunter moved closer or he put his hands on him in an effort to correct his posture or stance it seemed to get hotter and hotter.

Vo'jya stepped up closer, moving behind Taki and put his hands on the young shaman's hips, pushing them down. "Bend yo' knees, bwa. What kinda troll has a problem wit' standin' up too straight?" he muttered. As he tried to position Taki's hips correctly his hand slid against the waist of the young Shatterspear's loose abada pants, pushing them down his hip slightly. Skin touched skin and Taki made a small, choked sound of dismay. Vo'jya tsked, keeping one hand on one of Taki's hips as he ambled around to face the young shaman from the front. "It en't dat bad, why you fussin'? An' we haven't even started sparrin' so why you all flushed already, bwa?"

"I dunno, Voj... but I be gettin' da loops in mah head."

"Why? You eat sometin' bad? I told you not to eat inny'ting da orcs cook, bwa," the hunter said nonchalantly, taking a step back, but keeping his hands on Taki's hips as he examined his posture. He gave the shaman's hips another directive push downwards and then sighed in exasperation. "Loosen up, mon! Jus' square off wit' me like we about tah dance. Yo' posture was perfect den. Why dis gotta be so difficult when I'm tryin' ta get you to put it to some practical use?"

When they'd finally gotten back to Orgrimmar Vo'jya had left Taki to wait for him at Dark Briar lodge, not trusting the young shaman to stay out of trouble in the more diverse areas of the sprawling orc city. Happy to have finally settled his shady debts and only having had to endure a minor beating for his trouble, he'd returned to fetch the shaman only to find that Taki had joined a troll dancing circle in the ankle-deep water around the lodge.

The fast-paced "dance" was in truth little more than a sneaky - and fun - way to hone, practice, and sharpen basic hand to hand combat skills. It was something every troll child learned, and more often than not dances were preformed as games or competitions with dancers dodging and weaving, kicking, flipping, and twisting around each other in a very convincing mockery of a full-out fight, though it was rare for physical contact to be made.

Taki had always been so awkward and clumsy with the long staff he carried that Vo'jya assumed he was just clumsy and awkward, period. But coming upon the scene of the dance circle - where it actually seemed that Taki was the main focus, other trolls laughing and clapping, keeping time and tagging each other in and out to "dance" with the young Shatterspear - both confounded and amazed Vo'jya. Taki was good. Amazingly so. He was lightening quick, not only in his movements, but in the decisions he made to counter each partner's moves. He flowed effortlessly and seemingly tirelessly around the ring of bodies and each troll who jumped in to join him.

It was in that moment that Vo'jya realized that Taki might not be a bad fighter after all. Perhaps he'd simply been trying to use the wrong kind of weapon. What Taki needed was a little guidance and to find some weapons that better suited him than the long staff.

So before they left the city Vo'jya had bought two things for the young shaman with the remainder of his gambling spoils. The first was a set of daggers, something small and light that would lend themselves to a close range, fast-paced style of combat. The second was one of the young riding raptors that were raised and trained in Sen'jin village.

Even as he left Taki sleeping in the inn to trek down to the village, a place he always felt uncomfortably out of place despite the fact that he was Darkspear, he didn't know what had possessed him to think of buying such a thing for the shaman. But somehow the idea had been planted in his brain and he hadn't been able to shake it. Taki hadn't been able to believe it either, giving him a bewildered and incredulous look when he had presented him with both gifts that morning.

"Vo'jya... I can't be acceptin' dis, mon. It en't dis side o' da line..." he'd said, shaking his head slowly.

"Why not, bwa? An' what dat look for?" he'd grumbled.

Taki had stared at him speechless for a few moment and then turned a furious and violent shade of lavender. "I... I don't be ponderin' straight like... I'm jus' not used to you being honey sweet wit me, Voj."

To be honest with himself Vo'jya wasn't used to it either, and still could not figure out what had possessed him to be so generous. He told himself it was simply because he felt bad for the shaman, knowing he'd soon be leaving him alone in the world again. But what was perhaps closer to the truth was that Taki's sharp words to him that night among the lofty stone spires of Thousand Needles had struck a rather sharp chord.

The hunter didn't know why he should care, but he didn't like the picture those words painted of himself, nor that Taki saw that picture so clearly. He had never cared what anyone else, not even his own master, had thought of him. But somewhere along the way, for some reason it had started to bother him that the young shaman might think ill of him, despite the fact that he had never made any effort to make him think or feel otherwise. So with a little prodding from Vo'jya Taki had reluctantly and rather bashfully accepted both gifts.

Now the two trolls were standing facing each other on the outskirts of the Cross Roads, mounts stabled, fed, and watered, in the diminishing light of evening as Vo'jya began to instruct Taki in the use of his new weapons. Tak'tara's hips were still stiff and locked beneath Vo'jya's hands, and the hunter grumbled, taking another large step back and taking his hands with him. "Okeh. Just do like I said, bwa. Take yo' stance like we about ta dance."

Taki sighed and easily settled into the wide-set near-crouch, arms coming up and into position. He held the pose for a moment and then went slightly limp, straightening up again. "But, Voj, dis don' feel straight-like. I could put dah cut on you wit' dese knives, mon," he said a bit lamely, holding out the daggers, palms up.

"Bwa, dat's kinda da point," Vo'jya said with a small tinge of exasperation. He started unclipping his dual axes from his own hips, finding the proper balance in his hands before crouching down into a ready stance of his own.

Taki's eyes went wide and he took a step back. "You en't gwonna be crackin' at me wit does log-splittahs, is you?"

Vo'jya sighed and tried to keep himself from snarling. "It's just fo' practice, bwa. I en't gwonna hit you fo' real. Now get in yo' stance!"

Taki obeyed, resuming his position, adjusting the feel of the knife handles in his hands until they seemed to be pointing in the correct direction. He shuffled his feet nervously, puffing a stray piece of orange hair out of his equally orange eyes as they fixed intently on Vo'jya's taut and ready form. He tried to keep his eyes from wandering and taking in more of him than he should. But the lines of his muscular shoulders, arms, and chest were almost as distracting as the intense color of his dark blue eyes. Taki felt one of his eyebrows pulling up slightly as the tip of his tongue poked out ever so slightly at the corner of his mouth.

"Taki!" Vo'jya shouted. "Don't space out on me, bwa. I know dat look. Now focus!"

Taki shook his head and blinked rapidly, looking away for a moment, feeling his flush coming back as his heart seemed to pick up its pace. "I'm grinnin' low," he mumbled, and then tried to steel himself to concentrate on the task at hand.

Vo'jya rolled his eyes and mumbled, "How many times I hear dat a day?"

Taki flushed deeper still and tried to look stern and focused. Watching the effort almost made the hunter laugh. "Now jus' come at me like we gwonna dance, slow at first and den we see how well dis is gwonna work."

Taki did as he was told, rocking from foot to foot to get a rhythm set in his mind and body like a distant thrum of drumming. He went forward, kicking high, knowing Vo'jya would easily duck beneath his leg. He pivoted, going low, sweeping his leg out, knowing once again that the other troll could easily step out of the way. Up, down, right, left, high, low, over and under. These moves were all second nature for the Shatterspear shaman who had spent almost all of his short life doing very little other than dancing and drumming away his time with his fellow villagers.

The movements were so ingrained into his muscles that he hardly had to think about them anymore. Once they had a good pace going, Vo'jya started to tighten his movements, bringing them in closer, forcing Taki to be more precise with the way he moved.

Without warning Vo'jya suddenly took a swing at him, axe moving in a controlled arc. Taki barely had time to think about reacting, gasping sharply at the same moment he automatically brought one of his daggers up to catch the blade of the axe and arrest its swing against the hilt. The movement was sudden and jarring, and Taki was as surprised by the fact that he had actually reacted in time to stop the blade as he was by the blossoming ache in his wrist and forearm. But he didn't have much time to be dazed as Vo'jya pulled his axe back and the dance continued.

It went on for some time, the hunter occasionally swinging at him, and each time Taki deflected the blow, though always with that ringing dull ache to his muscles. It started to become fun, almost like a game, and as his excitement grew, so did his confidence. He started to take a few swings of his own, and although they were almost effortlessly deflected by Vo'jya it still made Taki happy to think that he might actually be good at this dual-wielding style of fighting. And if not truly good at it then he at least did not utterly fail at it as he had come to expect of himself when it came to most new pursuits in life. Even riding the raptor Vo'jya had given him from Orgrimmar to the Cross Roads had been a rather tricky and somewhat aggravating task.

As his excitement and confidence grew a strange sense of detached euphoria came over the young Shatterspear like a creeping thing, a fog filling first his limbs and then his mind. It felt strange and somehow comforting, safe to let it happen and to let the growing sense of other and distance guide his movements. Faster, more calculated, sharper, cleaner, each movement like a pinprick of precise action.

Taki took a rather aggressive swing at Vo'jya, bringing his dagger down in a sharp motion that actually drug sparks from the deflecting flat of the hunter's axe. He snarled, barking out a short battle cry. Vo'jya exclaimed sharply and grunted, jerking back from the unexpected ferocity of Taki's attack. He blinked and then chuckled a bit nervously, stepping back, starting to disengage.

"Okeh, I t'ink dat's enough you seem to have gotten da-"

But Taki was still in the mindset of the dance, and without listening to what Vo'jya was saying he followed after him, going low again to swing his leg beneath the larger troll's feet, bringing him down on his back like a feld tree. Hooking his ankle around one of Vo'jya's calves and using this leverage and his momentum to carry himself forward Taki landed with his knee square in the center of Vo'jya's chest, dagger held high above his face, poised to strike downwards. The hunter coughed and grunted loudly, already having had the wind knocked out of him by the sweep kick. His head fell back against the scrubby Barren's ground none-too-softly and he let go of both of his axes, hands limp in the grass. He groaned and tried to breath.

Taki was flushed and panting, grinning down at Vo'jya, knee digging into his sternum. "I got ya pretteh good, Voj!" he said, his voice almost a snarl, sounding strange and deep even to his own ears. He looked down at the hunter, taking in the sight of him startled, winded, and pinned beneath him. It gave him a strange thrill. A shiver went up his spine and into his arm all the way to his hand where the dagger twitched almost as if in its own anticipation of a final blow.

The sensation was so strong and so startling that Taki actually gasped, feeling a strange dark rush all through his body, flowing out of him with an intense shiver. His eyes widened as he continued to look down at the hunter. "Vo'jya?... Are you huffin' strong like?"

Vo'jya coughed and waved his hand trying to motion Taki away. "Get... off!" he croaked.

Taki gasped again as he scrambled to climb off Vo'jya's chest and kneel at his side, looking over him worriedly, a position that seemed to be becoming more and more common. How many times now had he inadvertently brought physical harm to the older troll, the one who was supposed to be his guardian, his protector? It seemed like Vo'jya took more abuse from Taki himself than any would-be molesters, centaur or otherwise.

Taki felt himself wilting slightly beneath his thoughts and the strange sense of sudden fatigue that was coming over him. That, too, was becoming a familiar feeling, though he told himself it was just because of all of the energy he had just exerted sparring with Vo'jya. He bunched his hands against his thighs, lowering his head to mumble his customary apology. "I'm grinnin' low, Voj," he whispered.

"I know," Vo'jya sighed, and then coughed again, rolling onto his side to groan for a moment, still catching his breath. He got slowly and stiffly to his feet, absently patting the top of Taki's orange head as he straightened. "Don' worry about it, bwa. I'm used to it by now."

He shook his legs out one at a time and bent to pick up his axes before turning to head back towards the Cross Roads outpost. "I t'ink you got mah tailbone, bwa," Vo'jya grunted, wincing and limping slightly, pressing the heel of one hand into the base of his spine. Taki knelt in the scrubby grass for a few more moments, pursing his lips together before Vo'jya turned around and fixed him with dark blue eyes and an impatient little finger twirl. "Let's get movin', bwa. Fastah we get to sleeping dah fastah we can get goin' in da mornin'."

"Da fastah we'll be in Thundah Bluff," Taki responded, slowly getting to his feet, awkwardly sheathing the daggers. He shuffled after Vo'jya. "Da fastah you get to be washin' yo hands an' hoppin' da wind on me, eh Voj?"

"Dat en't what I said, bwa," Vo'jya said. "Sure we gwonna be in Thundah Bluff by tomorrow night and den you gwonna be wit da Eart'en Ring, but I plan to stay at least a day." He gave Taki a wink as the young shaman fell into step beside him and they headed towards the road that led into the little outpost. "An' Mastah Jemba gwonna meet us dere. He left me a lettah. Good t'ing we went back to Orgrimmar or else dat would have been da most wondahful surprise." Vo'jya rolled his eyes, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "An' we both know he be givin' me no end of trouble if I just leave yo' spirit speakin' hide dere alone before you get some kind of settled."

Taki looked up at Vo'jya and then away again, nodding slowly.

"You nervous, bwa?" Vo'jya asked almost as if the question was a compulsion, tugging at one of his tusks.

Taki looked up again, finding the hunter's eyes. "I be guessin' truth," he answered, scrunching up his nose and scratching his head.

Vo'jya looped his arm around Taki's shoulders and tugged on the end of one of his braids. "You gwonna be fine, bwa. You did pretteh good wit' dose daggahs. Got me pretteh hard at da end. I wasn't expectin' dat. An' you en't set me on fire once wit' one of yo' totems since we came back from da Undahcity. Dat's goin' on two weeks. Dat's pretteh good, bwa. You be da Farseeah in no time."

"You really be ponderin' dat da truth?" the young shaman asked, perking up and bouncing slightly against Vo'jya's side, looking up at his with wide, slanted eyes.

Vo'jya looked down at him and paused, drawing his brows down in thought. "Well... mebbe not no time, but someday, bwa."

Taki giggled and gave in to the compulsion to lean in closer against the older troll. He took a deep breath, appreciating the mixed smells of leather, wood, dust, and musk that made up Vo'jya's scent. The hunter didn't seem to notice, or if he did he didn't say anything. "Voj can I be nose pokin' on somet'ing?"

"Dat mean you want to ask me a question?" Taki nodded and Vo'jya released his shoulder, giving him a curious look. "Ask den, bwa."

"Why you callin' me 'bwa' alla da time? You know I'm not as green-like as I be seemin'. I'm bein' of age, mon!" he said defensively, punctuating his words with his hands. "I am not bein' a bwa any more." Vo'jya looked over at Taki with a startled and amused look on his face for a moment before he started laughing. "I'm waggin' hard words, Vo'jya!"

"Yo sistah called you 'bwa' when we first met, bwa. It jus' stuck in mah head. What'chu wan' me ta do about dat?" Vo'jya chuckled.

Taki stopped for a moment and made a face, balling his hands into fists. "But I en't a bwa! I be of age!" he repeated rather vehemently.

Vo'jya paused and gave Taki an amused look and then cleared his throat, trying to look serious. "I see dat. You made sure you told me twice, bwa. But I'm still gonna call you 'bwa'. Even when you da Farseeah, you gwonna be da bwa to me. Dat okeh wit'chu?"

Taki made a pouty face, "Yah I be ponderin' dat's dis side o da line. As long as you be ponderin' straight dat I en't really a bwa, mon." He fell back into step, crossing through the gates of the Cross Roads just as the sun disappeared behind the red mountains of the Barrens.

The view from Spirit Rise in the hour before sunset was perhaps one of the most breathtaking scenes Vo'jya had ever seen. At least it had been the first half dozen times he'd seen it. Over the years he'd been in and out of Thunder Bluff so many times that the sweeping vistas had all but become common place. But at the moment, with his back pressed against the sun-warmed wooden walls of the back of one of the tauren buildings, the rope bridge above creaking in the soft mesa wind, and Lukka gnawing absently on the tip of his ear, the view was almost moving again. He could still hear the deep beating of the drums behind him, two distinct rhythms weaving together pleasantly. The first was the slow, methodical tauren thrum, the second a more vibrant staccato of trollish beats.

Taki had been drumming when then hunter snuck away. He wondered if the young troll was still at it. That had been nearly an hour ago. He took a deep breath of the warm, sweet Mulgore air and let his head fall back against the wooden wall, closing his eyes. He reached up to stroke Lukka's breast feathers, ignoring the disgruntled squawk he got for his efforts.

"Voj?!" Taki's voice was muffled around the side of the building. The hunter cracked an eye and considered not answering. For some reason he just didn't feel like he was up to facing the young shaman. But then his voice came again. "Vo'jya?!" And there was a slight hint of panic in it that made his gut twist. The bwa probably thought he had left him for good without saying goodbye. And even though it was something he probably would have done without a second thought a month ago, it bothered him now to think Taki would be worried about it.

"Back here, bwa!" he called out and then waited, watching the corner of the building out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough a few moments later Taki scampered around the corner, giggling, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Vo'jya, why you laze shankin' aroun' in da end rays, mon? Dere be so much sway makin' tah do!" he reached down to grab the hunter's hand and yanked on it, trying to pull him to his feet. He tugged several times, digging in his heels, giggling the whole time.

"Okeh, okeh, just settle down," Vo'jya grunted. "I'm takin' a break from alla da ruckus, mon. Enjoyin' da view. Stop pullin' on mah arm!"

"But Vo'jya! I be poundin' fierce, you gotta come bend yo ears, mon! Da Ring be waggin' dey gwonna take me, and now dey makin' dis hoopla! You can' just sit here when you shakin' out on me tomorrow, mon!" He tugged at Vo'jya's arm again, stepping in front of him and yanking. "C'mon! C'mon!"

"Bwa, settle down," Vo'jya tried to sound stern, but couldn't keep the chuckle out of his voice. Taki was enthusiastic and obviously inebriated. "We pretteh close to dah edge here you could-"

"C'mon!" Taki cried again, tugging firmly and bouncing on the balls of his feet. As he did his hands, sweaty from drumming, slipped and he tripped backwards, arms wind milling as he gasped, feeling nothing behind him, eyes wide.

Vo'jya was on his feet in a split second, dislodging Lukka from his shoulder in an aggravated squawk and a molting of frayed feathers. He reached out, hand closing around the front of Taki's leather jerkin, jerking him back from the edge, his other arm looping around his back and catching him hard up against his body.

Startled, Taki cried out as he pressed his face into Vo'jya's shoulder, clutching at the back of his clothes as he tried to regain his balance. His heart was pounding, a sound almost as loud as the distant drumming, and he trembled.

The two stood for several moments still close to the edge. Vo'jya's own breath was coming rather quickly as he stepped them both back from the lip until he felt the warm wood at his back again. "I told you to be careful, bwa. You almost went ovah, and I don' care how much sway you t'ink you got wit' da spirits now, no way dey were gwonna save you from dat drop."

"Mmmn," Taki made an indistinct sound of discontent, burying his face farther into Vo'jya's neck and shoulder, the point of one of his upturned tusks scraped against the skin of Vo'jya's throat, causing the hunter to jerk his head slightly to the side.

"Watch yo' tusks, bwa. You en't had da years ta wear dose points down," he said with a nervous chuckle. Though he had pulled away, something about the feel of Taki burrowing in against his neck was making his body react rather strangely.

"I'm grinnin' low, Voj. I jus'... I jus'..." he nuzzled again, taking a deep breath, "like da whiffs I get offa you."

Vo'jya's eyebrows both shot straight up and he chuckled again, now reaching around his back to catch at Taki's wrists and release his grasp on his clothes before pushing him gently away by the shoulders. "How much you been drinkin', bwa?"

"Not dat much," Taki said softly, his hands rising again to now grip the front of Vo'jya's tunic. He raised his head to look up at Vo'jya with a distant look on his face. The whites of his eyes were shot through with red, and looked a bit dry and puffy.

Now Vo'jya chuckled in earnest, lowering one eyebrow. "Den how much you been smokin' wit' Mastah Jemba?"

Taki opened his mouth to say something, but instead dissolved into giggles, butting his head against Vo'jya's chest. "Not dat much."

"Uh huh. An' have you evah been smokin' da ganja before?"

Taki twisted his head to peek one eye up at Vo'jya, twisting slightly from side to side. "Not hard like."

Vo'jya nodded with an indulgent smile on his face, patting Taki's head patronizingly. "Den I t'ink if you been smokin' wit' Mastah Jemba you have definitely had more dan enough, bwa."

Taki looked up then with a serious look on his face, his blood-shot, slanted orange eyes fixing on Vo'jya's face intently. He leaned farther in, more heavily against the hunter so that Vo'jya's back pressed firmly against the wooden building. He stared down at Taki, eyebrows still raised.

"You en't lettin' it go spit slick what I was waggin' to ya, right Voj? You be ponderin' stone sure I en't really a bwa."

"So you said," Vo'jya responded, feeling as if he should chuckle, but something about the look in Taki's eyes and the way he was pushing himself up on his toes to get his face closer made the sound catch in the middle of his throat and stick there. He watched, wary, pulling his head back as Taki's face came closer. He didn't really realize the danger he was in until the soft clack of one of Taki's tusks rubbing against the inside of one of his registered along with the resulting vibration of the contact. "Taki-"

"Still yo waggin', mon," Taki said with a small hiccup, and the next thing the hunter knew one of the young shaman's hands had closed around one of his long, wide-set tusks and yanked his face down. Their long noses bumped awkwardly and a little painfully, and then with a giggle and a soft sigh Taki pressed his lips against the hunter's, hand unerringly gripping his tusk to keep him from pulling away.

For the first few seconds Vo'jya did nothing but stand stiff, eyes wide and staring as the young Shatterspear kept their lips and bodies pressed together. And then he felt the first soft, wet inquiry of Taki's tongue, and every single sensible fiber of his being told him to push the shaman away and put an end to whatever intoxicated delusions he was having. Yet that's not what he did, at least not at first. Instead his eyes fell shut, eyebrows drawing down as his lips parted, his own long tongue tentatively meeting Taki's, sliding against it and into his mouth slowly, feeling the nervous tension in the shaman in the slight flinching back that dissolved as their lips met again and sealed together, heads angling naturally to make a better fit around their tusks.

He let himself explore the sensation of kissing Taki for another long moment, trying to absorb the fact that his body, usually so impervious to physical excitement, was actually reacting to the young shaman, before his rational brain took over and he pulled back, breaking the kiss and untangling his face and tusks from Taki's. He had to reach up and physically pull his hand from his tusk as the Shatterspear tried to pull their faces back together.

"Bwa, dat's enough. You en't t'inkin' right," he said, his voice low. "You don' wan' ta be doin' alla dis righ' now."

Taki looked up at the hunter fiercely. "I be ponderin' real straight like what I be wantin', Vo'jya! You was pressin' back, mon, I felt it!"

Vo'jya shook his head. "Dat en't da point, bwa. You surprised me." He put his hand firmly on Taki's chest and pushed him back gently as the young shaman tried to press closer again. As he looked up at the hunter Taki's eyes began to fill with tears, his lips trembling. "No... bwa, don' start wit' da cryin'..."

"Is it because I'm hinky?!" he sobbed, suddenly overflowing with tears. "Because I get da trembles fo' oddah mons? Is dat why?"

Vo'jya made sure to keep Taki firmly held at bay, because he knew that if he didn't the young shaman was going to launch himself at him. He shook his head. "I en't got no problem wit' dat, bwa. Dat en't an issue here." And it wasn't. Perhaps it was because he thought so rarely about sex to begin with or because he'd never bothered to think about his own sexuality much at all, but Vo'jya made little of things like gender when it came to sex or love. He had never considered not being sexually interested in Taki because of his gender... up until about a minute ago he had never considered being sexually interested in Taki, period.

"Den what?" Taki pressed on, his face now a mess of tears that Vo'jya knew full well were as much a result of his inebriated state as anything else. "Is it because you still pondah dat I'm a bwa?! I wagged truth dat I'm of age!"

Vo'jya sighed. "I en't answering dat, because you en't in inny position to listen, bwa. You are drunk and highah dan a cloud."

"I en't!" Taki cried, slamming his fist into Vo'jya's chest and hiccupping violently. He looked up at Vo'jya angrily, lips pressed into a thin line and then made an inarticulate sound of frustration, pressing his face into the hunter's tunic.

"Bwa..." Vo'jya began to wrap his arms comfortingly around the young shaman, only to find that he was supporting all of Taki's weight. He had apparently lost consciousness. "Great." He hoisted Taki into his arms, cradling his small, snoring body against his chest as he carefully navigated his way back around the building and towards the continuing celebration. Not even the sound of the drumbeats seemed to disturb the shaman in whose honor they were beating. He had no idea where to take Taki as he had no idea where he was actually supposed to be sleeping.

He heard a distinctive chuckle behind him and turned around to see Jemba eyeing him mischievously, his pipe clamped between his teeth. "You tire dat bwa out already, mon?"

Vo'jya grit his teeth. "No, but I t'ank ya fo' gettin' him so high dat he attacked mah face and den passed out in mah arms."

Jemba chuckled. "He likes you, Vo'jya. Dere en't not'in wrong wit dat, mon. Besides he won' be rememberin' inny o' dat tomorrow mos' likely."

"Well his feelings have become raddah apparent in da last ten minutes, t'ank you, mastah."

Jemba rolled his eyes and sauntered closer. "I have da feelin' dat it's been pretteh apparent fo' quite some time, mon, but knowin' you and yo' t'ick head I doubt ya evah noticed."

"I got bettah t'ings tah do dan wondah what part I play in everyone's sexual fantasies, Mastah Jemba."

"An' what about yo' own sexual fantasies?"

"I don' have inny. An if I did I wouldn' discuss dem wit'chu, old mon," Vo'jya snapped.

Jemba shook his head. "Dere are so many t'ings wrong wit'chu, mon."

"You ought to know. Most of dem are da result o' da way you raised me."

Jemba was silent for a moment at that, pressing his lips together, the hunch in his back seeming to increase as he slumped slightly. "Not alla da ganja an' drink in da world evah convinced me oddahwise. I pray every day dat yo' faddah will fo'give mah failure an my weakness in regards to you."

Vo'jya stared at his master, lips pressed together, his expression unreadable. "I don' need tah hear non o' dis from you, mon. I en't lookin' fo' a heat ta heart." Jemba nodded and took a deep drag on his pipe, saying no more. "Now jus' tell me where I'm suppose to put da bwa."

Jemba led him to a small lean-to set apart from the main buildings of the rise. "Dey said we could stay here, mon," Jemba said, waving a gnarled hand at the three bedrolls spread out on the floor. Vo'jya entered and crouched, carefully letting Taki roll out of his arms and onto the bedding. The young shaman muttered fitfully and then lay still. The hunter touched Taki's face for a moment, brushing back orange bangs from his eyes.

Jemba looked on, his long, graying ears drooping a little. "You know, I raised you da way I did, because I wanted you to be hard, not like yo' faddah whose own good heart brought on his death. I am glad to see dat I was not entirely successful. You more like Dembe den I evah wanted you to be, I see dat now, and I t'ank da spirits I could not ruin you entirely, Vo'jya." The aged hunter turned then and ambled out of the lean-to, leaving Vo'jya stunned, eyes glued to the place his master had been standing. In all of the years he had been trained and raised by the master hunter he had never ever been told that he was like his father.

Feeling weary and confused on multiple fronts Vo'jya lay down, giving up on resisting the urge to pull Taki close to him, letting the shaman burrow into his chest as he draped his arm gently around him. His fingertips brushed the shadow that Taki's form cast on the bedrolls and he shivered violently, taken aback by the intense, stabbing cold that went up through his arm. He looked towards the door of the lean-to, wondering if there was some kind of a draft. But when he did not feel it again he relaxed and closed his eyes, letting his thoughts slip away as he drifted into sleep.

The next morning Taki woke with a start and a pounding feeling in his head he had never felt before. Master Jemba was snoring loudly on his bedroll, and for a moment Taki thought that was what had woken him. But he realized quickly that what had woken him was not something, but the lack of something. Vo'jya and the warmth he had been enveloped in most of the night were both gone.

The young shaman swore under his breath and got quickly to his feet, regretting it immediately as he had the fiercest dizzy spell of his life coupled with the intense desire to vomit. It took him a moment to get his bearings and then he forced himself to stumble from the lean-to, casting around as quickly as his pounding head would let him. He caught sight of the hunter's back, nearly across one of the wooden bridges that swung precariously in the stiff mesa wind.

"Vo'jya!" he cried out, but if the hunter heard him he made no sign and continued across the bridge to the deck of the building beyond. Taki scrambled after him, finding himself having to resist the urge to cling to the swinging bride for dear life as the motion and the incredible height teamed up to give him an intense sensation of vertigo. He forced himself to continue across, finally reaching the other side and calling out again

"Vo'jya wait!" He hurried through the doorway into the building the bridge fed into and halted at the railing of the second floor. Vo'jya had stopped at the bottom of the ramp and was looking back up at him, his face a passive mask. Taki stared down at him for a long moment, trying to catch his breath and control the pounding in his head. "You hoppin' da wind?" he asked finally, unable to keep his voice from trembling.

Vo'jya nodded.

"Wit'out waggin' a goodbye?" Taki asked, clearly hurt, finding it hard to speak around the lump in his throat.

Vo'jya gave a smooth smile, tilting his head to the side. "We said goodbye last night, bwa. I told ya I was leavin' early."

Taki continued to stare and then shook his head. "You wag Damballa's tongue like slick oil, Vo'jya, but truth, mon, I know dat we didn't."

Vo'jya slowly raised an eyebrow. "You remembah last night dat clear?"

Taki nodded. "Watah clear like."

Vo'jya looked down at his toes, giving a chagrinned smile. "I'd hoped you wouldn' remembah, but in inny case you'd been smokin' da ganja wit Mastah Jemba and had sure enough to drink."

"You pressed back."

Vo'jya fell silent and looked up at Taki for a moment before nodding slowly and starting to turn away. "I have to go, bwa. Take care of yo'self."

"You pressed back!" he cried again. "You can' just go hoppin' da wind on me aftah dat, Vo'jya! You can' leave!" Vo'jya made himself keep walking. "You can't leave! Don' you be ponderin' truth, Vo'jya?! I'm hard on ya!" Taki stumbled down the ramp and leaned heavily against the wall, trying to keep himself from falling over.

Vo'jya felt the words rip through his body, and although he had never heard it put quite like that he knew what they meant. He turned slowly, and Taki looked at him plaintively, his face a twisted mask of misery. "I'm hard on ya..." he whispered as if that should explain everything, and his nostrils flared with the first sign of the oncoming tears.

Vo'jya set his lips in a firm line, brows furrowed. "I know."

"Den you can' be shakin' out," Taki repeated, looking at him desperately.

"I have to, bwa. I can' stay."

"You pressed back," he said again. "Dat has to mean somet'ing." He straightened up against the wall and stumbled forward to the doorway, grabbing at Vo'jya, pulling him back away from the door clumsily. Vo'jya followed him, allowing the young shaman to push him into a corner in the dark overhang of the second story.

The hunter looked down at Taki and shook his head. "I t'ink you might still be drunk, bwa."

"Don' be switch splittin' on me, Vo'jya!" Taki cried, pushing him farther into the corner, gripping the front of the hunter's tunic. "You pressed back... you... you kissed me back, mon."

Vo'jya sighed and pursed his lips. "I did, but dat doesn't mean innyt'ing, bwa."

"Den be doin' it again!"

Vo'jya blinked, and opened his mouth, but nothing really came out.

"Do it again, Vo'jya! Press yo' lips to mine as fierce as you did last night, mon. If it don' be meanin' innyt'ing it should be easy enough to jus' be doin' it." They stared at each other hard, and then before Vo'jya could stop him Taki had grabbed his tusk again and pulled their faces together. Again the sting of bumping noses and then the press of their lips.

Vo'jya was going to resist, he swore he was, but then that restless reaction began in his body again and every action he tried to take against it only came back to the same result: continuing to kiss the bwa. Taki's tusks pressed and brushed against his face. Vo'jya's own were wide set enough to avoid contact save for when Take twisted his head sharply to the side. Hands clutching clothes, hands clutching hair, tusks, shoulders, twining around bodies. Vo'jya had never before realized that Taki's skin has its own scent, and he wondered absently how he had managed not to notice this small fact before. He had a taste, too...

This thought brought the hunter back to himself and he broke the kiss, firmly pushing Taki back.

Their eyes met and burned as they looked at each other. There was a triumphant, impish grin on Taki's flushed face. "If you go waggin' dat dere was bein' no meanin' behind dat I'm gwonna pound ya in da guts righ' here, Vo'jya."

Vo'jya let his head fall back against the wall with a sound that felt like defeat. He swore under his breath and then leveled his gaze on the young shaman again. "Dis is not da time, Taki. I'm gwonna let go o' you an' I'm gwonna walk out dat door, an' you gwonna go back to yo bed an' wait ta start yo' trainin, bwa."

"I en't bein' a bwa!" Taki snapped, shoving Vo'jya in the chest. "And how can you be waggin' dat you gwonna shake out on me?! I mean somet'ing to you, Voj. Jus' try ta wag oddahwise aftah dat."

Vo'jya shook his head. "You do mean somet'ing to me, Taki, but what dat is and what dat means I don' know. What I do know is dat I got you to da Eart'en Ring, an' dat yo' place right now is here wit' yo' trainin'. An' right now... dis is not mah place. An' no mattah what you say about not bein' a bwa, dat don' change da fact dat you are still verreh young. You have years to train. I would distract you from dat, an' I can't be stayin' put for dat long." He looked down into Taki's eyes and took a deep breath, hoping he was not going to regret what he was about to say. "You finish yo' trainin', an' when you do we be revisitin' dis subject. I promise."

Taki stared at him hard, gritting his teeth, looking at him as if he would be able to read a lie behind his eyes. "You swearin' it, mon?"

Vo'jya nodded. "I en't nevah been a liah to you. I en't gwonna start now, bwa."

Taki's face softened, his lips going somewhat slack as he stared up into Vo'jya's face. "I don' wan'chu to go, Vo'jya. I will be all eyes down an' alone wit'out you. You'll nevah shake back dis way ta see me."

"Dat's not true, bwa," Vo'jya said softly, letting his hand come to rest on the back of his neck, tightening slightly around his braids. "I swear I will visit you whenevah I can. I promise." He pulled the young shaman against him, pressing his face to his shoulder.

Taki sniffled. "Don' go gettin' slicks aftah you again, mon," he said, his voice muffled. "I don't wan' mah head all drafty wit' worries."

The hunter chuckled and found himself kissing the shaman's forehead, an action that felt strangely natural. "I en't makin' no promises on dat front." They stood quietly against the wall in their tentative embrace, neither precisely sure what it meant or where it would lead. Finally Vo'jya began to push Taki away again. "I gotta go, bwa."

Taki nodded dumbly, looking down at his feet, letting Vo'jya go. He felt elated and crushed at the same time. He meant something to the hunter, but he was leaving anyway. His eyes followed the Vo'jya as he crossed the small room to the door and turned to look back. "I won' let it go spit slick, Voj," he called after him. "You may t'ink dat I won' remembah what you was waggin' as truth today, but I will. I won' let you fo'get neidah. An' I won' stop feelin' dis way, so don' be hatchin' on dat. I'm hard on ya, and I en't gwonna stop bein' hard on ya."

Vo'jya couldn't help but smile with a small shake of his head. "I know, bwa. I en't expectin' ya to." With that he turned and disappeared out the door into the light of the early Mulgore morning.

No longer able to see Vo'jya's back Taki gave a small cry of utter sadness and melted back against the wall. He closed his eyes and tried hard not to cry. He knew how much Vo'jya hated it when he let himself cry. But, spirits, he was so alone, so confused and so alone. Taki let himself slide down the wall, pulling his knees up to his chest. He wrapped his arms around his legs and buried his face in his knees, ashamed that despite all of his efforts he still could not stop the tears. He knew that now that Vo'jya was gone the voices he was always hearing would always be there. For some reason they grew quieter around the hunter. They stilled and settled in his presence.

"Come back, Vo'jya..." he whispered. "I need ya, mon."

_You'll never be alone, cully. Not as long as I'm with you. I'll always keep you company, cully. And one day we'll be great friends, and give each other what we need._


End file.
